Neil Thomas about to start the time trial at the CAC Games.

BARRANQUILLA, Colombia—Neil Thomas became the first British Virgin Islands cyclist to compete at the Central American and Caribbean Games, and walked away from Friday’s 44 kilometer time trial satisfied with his performance on the hilly course in Barranquilla, Colombia where he was 17th overall.

While Thomas was eyeing a faster time than his March Commonwealth Games debut, the uphill finish saw him tow the line in one hour, 12 minutes and 35 seconds.

“I was really hard with some really long hills,” Thomas noted after cooling down on the two lap course. “I’m happy with my performance.”

Thomas said he felt good over the course. The plan was to keep light on the gears and stay within his rhythm which is what he was able to do. While the course was much different to the one at the Commonwealth Games, he said the hills were not too steep just long. “You had to learn to grind the gears. The course in Australia was faster and the hills weren’t as long. We had one hill climb on Australia, but here, we had four to five climbs,” he noted. “This was a good foundation and I’ve got a lot to work on. When I get home, I’ll set my schedule and just work on what I lean from here, both in time trialing and climbing.”

Coach Chris Ghiorse said when he saw the women’s race he knew it would be a hard course. “The guys who won the race today are serious all round riders. They have good leg speed and strength, a combination hard to come by sometimes,” Ghiorse noted. “Neil overall did as good as he could, with the conditions he had. He kept his leg speed up which is all I was worried about once I saw the course and how easy for him to over gear, because it’s a very difficult course. Its five miles straight and you can get led into a false sense that you can use a particular gear, but after three minutes of effort, you’ll realize you were pushing too big a gear, which would make you go slower.”

Comming in after a hard effort.

Ghiorse said he was unable to converse with Thomas as he wanted to because the communications devise malfunctioned just before the start of the race, but overall he felt he did very well.

This morning, Thomas will be among 63 entrants competing in the seven lap 154 kilometer road race on the same course as the time trial. He said with so many entrants, the field will pull you along, particularly over the hills. “In the time trial, I had to do all the work myself,” he said. “But in the road race, the field will pull you along.”

© Copyright 2003 BVI Cycling Federation

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